The King of Poland and Madame Geoffrin

By James, Henry

Book Id: WPLBN0000626039
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.4 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	The King of Poland and Madame Geoffrin
Author:	James, Henry
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, Blackmask Online Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Blackmask Online


Citation APA MLA Chicago James, B. H. (n.d.). The King of Poland and Madame Geoffrin. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Excerpt: MADAME GEOFFRIN?S name is familiar to all those who have glanced into the records of the French society of the last century, and especially familiar in its somewhat enigmatic aspect. She played a Part 1n the world which it is not an exaggeration to call eminent, and yet there is nothing whatever to show in explanation of her success. She had neither birth, nor beauty, nor wit; she had no conversational talent, no specialty, no secret charm. She could do nothing particular; so far from being able to write, she could not even spell, And yet she was hand and glove with the people of her day; her house was a sort of intellectual headquarters; she scolds the King of Poland in her ill?spelled epistles; she travels across Europe to Warsaw, and her journey is a ?European? event; she lodges in the King?s palace, and speaks her mind to him face to face; she sees Catharine of Russia entreat her in vain to honour St. Petersburg with a visit; she passes through Vienna and sits holding the hand of Maria Theresa for an hour, while the Emperor of Austria gets out of his coach into the mud, and comes to make his obeisance to her. Meanwhile she remains a plain?faced old woman, with a close white cap tied under her chin, who draws a large income from a manufactory of looking?glasses. She was the daughter of a valet de chambre about the court, and she was married at fifteen years of age to a rich but insignificant tradesman, who was so illiterate that he was one day found reading the double?columned page of a dictionary straight across from margin to margin. Mme. Geoffrin made her way with the sole assistance of her tranquil but robust ambition, her native tact, and her extreme good sense. Though she was no talker herself, she knew how to make others talk; she knew apparently how to preside at a brilliant conversation, and in the highly intellectual circle which she brought about her she performed the office of moderator, or, to express it in parliamentary phrase, of speaker. Moreover, she was extremely benevolent and humane.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: The King Of Poland And Madame Geoffrin, 1 -- By Henry James, 1